Advanced Anime Discussion Part IV (1 Viewer)

[Matt<>Broon]

Hello again guys, finally managed to stagger over.

It's been a good weekend, I finally got round to actually watching my first couple of discs of Cowboy Bebop.
Predictably I loved them and even my non believing flatmate liked them. After saying 'Well it's late, I'm going to sleep now' he stayed up and watched the entire first disc.

All I have to do now is wait for sessions 3-6 to make their way into my flexicart @ dv-depot and I'm set.

Anyway I'm currently letting my finger hover over the 'Crest of Stars' box set. Is it worth getting?

It needs to be really good by the way since I just spent £1,500.00 on a new big widescreen TV and won't have as much disposable as I did for a bit.

 

[Tony-B]

Anyway I'm currently letting my finger hover over the 'Crest of Stars' box set. Is it worth getting?

Um, YES! I CANNOT RECOMMEND THIS SERIES ENOUGH! Go get it! Trust me, it is really, really good.

 

[Woo Jae]

Chris Beveridge sums up my views on dubs in anime PERFECTLY.

I don't bash English dubs just because they're dubs. I don't demand they be stricken from the process. I don't badmouth every English VA just cause they're an English VA.

I just have my own preference.

I started watching anime in middle school (1987 ish) and I have always preferred subtitled anime (partly due to availability as most things were fansubbed back then) due to the way the voices are emoted. Not to mention the fact that anime tied in very well with videogames as well. Back then, dub quality was very poor and anime was nowhere as widespread back then. Thus, anime was, for the most part, only available subbed.

Having seen and grown up with subbed anime, I don't generally turn to dub tracks... Good dubs were rare, and even now, I feel dubs have a ways to go...

 

[Eric F]

I suppose I qualify for the advanced anime thread now, as my anime collection is expanding exponentially.

I asked this in the novice thread, but this thread gets more traffic- so I'll ask here:

I just got through Evangelion. I thought the last 2 episodes were interesting, but the story stopped short the episode before that- is there a final wrap-up to the story in any of the films? Any of them worth picking up?

 

[Rob Lutter]

End of Evangelion is an alternate ending to Evangelion. It's required viewing (and a much better ending IMHO)

 

[JohnAD]

Rob, Eric:

I agree with Rob, that End of Evangelion is definitely an improvement. Too bad Death and Rebirth is so weak.

John.

 

[Rob Lutter]

Death and Rebirth is an okay summary of the series if you don't want to sit though 26 episodes (Death makes a good double-feature w/ End) or you want to expose someone to Eva for the first time.

 

[ShaunS]

I agree that End of Eva is a much better end to the series. Death and Rebirth is a nice overview for someone who has already seen the series, but probably confusing to someone who hasn't. I haven't listened to the commentaries yet, any good? One thing I would say, though, is that both dvds have some of the nicest menus I've ever seen, although probably not worth picking up for that alone! And the 5.1 mixes are pretty well done. It is interesting to watch scenes from the series letterboxed too!

I've been busy watching His & Her Circumstances (made by the same guy as did Evangelian) and I got to say this is fast becoming a favorite of both my GF and I. It is so heavy on the drama and relationships side of things. Absolutely gripping at times. Alot of simularities with Eva if you ask me. Similar kind of campy humour with deep emotional scenes, although minus all the big creatures and battle scenes. And what an attractive bunch of characters. Sign me up at their school! Interestingly, I was checking out the Gainex sight for the series and it said that Anno actually went to a bunch of high schools and interviewed students to find out what their lives were like. It really shows as it brings me back to those days while watching it. Highly recommended!!

ShaunS

 

[Eric F]

I have to say that the final two Eva episodes were weird. Introspection is fine, but two whole episodes and as a finale?

Has the director ever stated why he did that, and what his original intent was? Did they run out of money or something?

 

[Kong Chang]

Due Note on Crest of the Stars and its sequel Banner of the Stars...

Bandai (or its translator) has messed up the translation so badly that it's not watchable. And since the sub translation was done incorrectly, the dub (which takes its words from the sub) is even worse. Lots of mistakes are noted on lots of fansites.

Otherwise, it's a good series, but they really need to find a translator who knows how to translate space opera correctly.

 

[Kong Chang]

Evangelion, episode 25 & 26, were partially due to being out of budget, and partially due to Anno wanting to convey what would happen if the 3 kids were to accept the whole experiment (a big melting pot of mind/spirit/body). This gives you one interpretation of what would happen.

End of Evangelion gives you an alternate perspective if they were to reject it.

As for His and Her Circumstances, it was unfortunate that Anno left about 3/4 through the series due to some problems at Gainax. Not just that, the creator of the manga which the anime is based off, really didn't like Anno's direction of the anime, which is why she probably doesn't want to give any more rights to the rest of her manga (and probably why the series ends abruptly too). It's unfortunate, because the series really had such a great storytelling and everything about it.

 

[Tony-B]

Lots of mistakes are noted on lots of fansites.

Like what? Do you have any of these sites that I can check out?

 

[JohnAD]

Tony:

I think Kong means that the subs are not accurately translating what the characters are saying. I haven't seen Crest or Banner, but I have seen other shows where the subs aren't accurate, and it's quite annoying to see.

John.

 

[Woo Jae]

Well, the subs were ... a bit confusing, to say the least. But having watched a LOT of subtitled (anime) material, I can figure out some of it on my own, so it wasn't so bad. It's the military terms that usually get me...

Banner of the Stars seems to be the title that got everyone up in a frenzy. In Chris Beveridge's AoD forums, some people posted a LONG explanation of the terms/items that were "mis"-translated. I will post that link when I find it later....

 

[Eric F]

Well, if we're talking about bad subs- I haven't seen a single opening theme that's coherent in English.

Lyrics/poetry must be especially difficult to translate. Makes you wonder how they do such a good job (some anyways) with the rest of it.

 

[Woo Jae]

For some reason, Berserk's Opening and Ending songs have made me cringe at the *engrish* contained therein. Me and my sister racked our brains trying to make sense of either and failed miserably.

I don't mind the occasional *engrish* phrase in a song. I mean Megumi Hayabashira's Get along, Try again from Slayers suited me just fine. Or the "You get to burning" from Nadesico's opening theme even. It starts to get bad for me when the entire song is incomprehensible (the rub is that I am fluent in english, so I should be able to fathom its meaning - but cannot...).

For the wonderful use of *engrish* in Japan and elsewhere, go to www.engrish.com for more amusing and poorly used engrish. A great site for a laugh, with frequently updated pics of (usually) those whacky Japanese and their (mis)use of English - otherwise known as engrish...

 

[Matt<>Broon]

Thanks for that Woo. I'd promised myself I wouldn't laugh at inadvertent 'Engrish' after I started to learn Japanese and discovered how bloody difficult it is. I'm reasonably fluent in Italian, German & English but going from a Roman to oriental language just plain sucks. I would imagine doing it the other way around is just as tricky so I decided to be understanding.

Needless to say I just broke that resolution. :b

 

[Woo Jae]

no problem, matt

Mostly, if you learn the Kanji (Chinese) characters, it (probably) won't be so bad. My mom, who has never learned Japanese, can figure out a Japanese newscast solely through the Kanji onscreen. But having too many alphabets (Katakana, Hiragana, Furigana, Romanji, etc etc.) doesn't help the learning of Japanese any either.

The strangest thing (and the "rub" that I posted earlier) is that as fluent english speakers, we should be able to "decipher" it. BUT most of the stuff is just outright incomprehensible. I mean I speak Korean, and I can vaguely guess at the intent behind the words, but my knowledge of actual ("real") English gets in the way...

I get just as disconcerted (and seriously annoyed) while watching Korean Movies/Programming with "real" english that is spoken (pretty badly in most cases). They may be good movies, but the engrish just turns me off... :frowning:

 

[Brendan Brown]

Keep in mind that you also have to give them a running explanation track because the summary in Death is far from linear.

 

[Rob Lutter]

Just a little warning for those of you collecting X TV... it seems that Pioneer didn't make enough LE covers for the entire run of X:FIVE so about HALF of the DVDs are missing the slip cover. I got a non-slip X:FIVE from TRSI where I preordered it about 3 months ago and members of the AoD forum have been reporting sightings of non-slips at B&M and other online stores... luckily Best Buy had 2 copies with the slip so I bought one there.

Just a word of warning for the anal collectors in the room